Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski advanced to their first ATP Tour championship match as a team on Friday, defeating Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-5, 6-3 at the Western & Southern Open.
The British pairing saved both break points it faced to eliminate the Australian Open champions after 84 minutes. Murray and Skupski will attempt to lift their first tour-level team title on Saturday, more than a year after triumphing at the Arizona Tennis Classic — an ATP Challenger Tour event — on their team debut in March 2019.
The unseeded duo has now defeated three seeded teams en route to the final. Alongside their win against Ram and Salisbury, Murray and Skupski also upset top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the first round and sixth seeds Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies in the quarter-finals.
Murray and Skupski will meet Pablo Carreno Busta and Alex de Minaur in the final. The Spanish-Australian tandem moved past wild cards Steve Johnson and Austin Krajicek 7-5, 6-4. Carreno Busta and De Minaur are making their team debut this week. Like Murray and Skupski, the unseeded pairing has survived two Match Tie-breaks en route to the championship match.
